Mostly well-thought out analysis, mostly.

Derek Jeter

This is one of my first blogs and I do not know if anyone read it other than one person. So please at least a short comment if you read it, and even better, leave a more elaborate comment with your opinion within it. Thanks!

Derek Jeter is a great player. He plays the game in a way that I marvel . I have utmost respect for him as a player, regardless of the uniform he wears. That is the thing about me. I judge the player based on how I feel about the player when I am evaluating his performance. The only player I truly dislike on the Yankees is A-Rod. And even that is just from a baseball standpoint. I don’t like anyone on that team though. I have respect for a few of them. Jeter and Matsui mainly. Both of those guys lay it all out and do the things they need to do in order to win baseball games. I wish Yankees fans would take this same approach. Maybe some do, but not the ones that I come across. For instance, I was serving a guy at Chilis the other day and I brought his credit card back to him and there was a baseball on it. So I asked him who his favorite team was just to make conversation (Since there is really nothing I would rather talk about than baseball). He said he was a Yankees fan. And then he took it upon himself to start up a conversation before he left. I quickly accepted the invite because well I would rather be doing nothing else. He first mentioned how he recently attended an Astros-Braves game. He noted that the Braves and Edgar Renteria had a sloppy middle infield. He said that Houston looked very good at the middle infield positions (We are talking about defense of course). And I told him that if you compare Renteria to Houston’s SS Adam Everett then Renteria will look even worse than he is. And I added "Adam Everett is probably the best shortstop in the game on the defensive side." Let me say this, many experts have formulated this opinion about Everett. I simply looked at the stats and nodded in agreement. I don’t get to watch very often, and cannot recall a single great play that I have seen from him. I find the Astros to be a boring franchise and have really only seen them play come playoff time. But if the experts say he is the best, and the stats back it up. Then I say he is probably the best. Anyway, after I said that the guy then went and said, "Well I think our guy Jeter is the best in the game defensively." And once again I was amazed at how ignorant some fans are. Jeter is a solid shortstop in my opinion. He makes pretty good plays and timely ones as well. If I had to guess at the top of my head where I would rank him amongst the total of 29 SS’s. I would say between 10th-12th. But Yankees fans watch him on a daily basis. They don’t see any other SS’s outside of him and the current opponents. Just as I watched Alex Gonzalez last year and felt like he was as good as any. But I put it in perspective, there are 29 other SS’s. Looking at the stats Gonzalez was near the top, but was not the absolute best. And I understand that. It is hard to watch a baseball game that does not include your favorite team. It can be flat out boring at times. This guy I waited on though knew the game. If the first thing you talk about after you see a baseball game involving teams that you are not a fan of is how the middle infield played, then I have to think that you know the game of baseball. So it doesn’t matter how much of the game you know it seems some just can’t fathom the idea of another player being better than their homegrown hero. And just to add one more thing about this. I made the comment at work the other night that Chase Utley was the best second baseman in baseball (not just talking defense now). And the Yankees fan I work with told me I was crazy. And then he said that Cano was better and probably the best at the position. No offense to Cano, he is good. But Utley is definitely better. Cano hasn’t reached his prime yet, and is not at the top as of now.

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5 Comments

i’ve been guilty of being Yankee-centric at times..

last year i posted on a Red Sox blog (not RSC) that between Derek Jeter and Alex Gonzalez that it was a hands-down landslide in favor of Derek Jeter; i now apologize to Alex Gonzalez – a fine shortstop; whether Derek or Alex was better last year.. well, i’m a fan without all the specific facts

now, that being said, i say don’t broad-brush Yankee fans; that would be like me saying all Red Sox fans are just like the ones who dumped beer all over Clemens’ wife some years back; how would that be as a sterotype of all Red Sox fans?

I was talking about the ones I deal with, at work really. This was my second post on here originally and hadn’t come across these Yankee fans yet. But when I work all the Yankee fans shut out my opinion call me crazy because nothing compares to the Yankees and no one. For instance I understand that Manny is a bad leftfielder but looks average because he plays the wall well. The one thing he does well is gets the ball in quickly, which is why is in part why he had so many assists. But that time he robbed the homer in Yankee stadium in 04′ was pretty cool. Leave the link to your page so I know who is leaving my comments.

Sorry. I meant to comment on this a couple of days ago, but I got REALLY busy.
When I say that Jeter makes the plays that other shortstops don’t, I mean that he makes the game-on-the-line, game-saving plays. He makes them routinely. His range to his glove side MAY not be as great as some of the “slicker” shortstops, but he is unparalleled to the back-hand, with his patented jump and throw that I’ve seen him make DOZENS of times. He is also THE BEST, in my opinion, at going back and catching pop flies. Still, taken as an “all-in-all” package, there’s NO ONE that I’d rather have on my team at shortstop. Defensively OR offensively.

Having said that, I’m a great admirer of Michael Young at Texas. He’d be my second choice.

I agree with you about not hating players.

There’s not one player on the Red Sox that I hate, or even dislike. I respect a great deal of them. The DO, however, have the wrong uniform on, so I DO root against them. But HATE them, no way. It’s just a game; everyone should love their own teams.

Thanks for your comments on my blog! I think that it’s going to be a real fun year for BOTH of our clubs!

I am a diehard Yankee fan BUT Chase Utley is the best second baseman out there. I have gone to a few Phillies game and I am going to the opener next week because of him. He is an awesome player. I think Robbie is stilling learning, and someday maybe he will be as great of a player as Chase. Chase is #1 but Robbie is definetly #2. I am hoping I get one of them for my fantasy team. Nice site.

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